Cold Case Detectives Arrest a Suspect in 1992 Murder

NEWBERRY SPRINGS: (VVNG.com)- Cold Case Detectives have arrested a suspect in the 1992 murder of Fidelmar Garcia who was found shot to death on the side of Newberry Springs Road, two and a half miles east of Old National Trails Highway on January 12, 1992.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Detail was summoned to the scene and detectives began a homicide investigation. Detectives positively identified the victim as Fidelmar Meza Garcia, age 25 from Arvin, California.

In 1992, numerous family, friends, and witnesses were interviewed regarding Garcia’s murder. For several years, Garcia lived in the United States for 9 months during the harvest season and Mexico for three, during the off season. Garcia worked in the fruit fields in Arvin, to support his wife and child in Mexico.

On January 11, 1992, at approximately 11:00pm, witnesses observed two armed men kidnap Garcia from his residence in Arvin, California. The following morning, Garcia was found shot to death in San Bernardino County, 170 miles south of his residence. Homicide investigators conducted an exhaustive investigation, but the case went cold.

On July 3, 2014, the Sheriff’s Department’s Cold Case Detectives reopened the case. The detectives identified, located and interviewed numerous witnesses, which resulted in evidence identifying the suspect, 49-year-old Gabino Mondragon Morales, a resident of Phoenix, Arizona as a suspect in this murder. On October 8, 2014, cold case detectives traveled to Phoenix, Arizona and interviewed Morales. At the conclusion of the interview, Morales was arrested and booked into the Maricopa County Jail for the Murder of Fidelmar Meza Garcia. Morales was transported back to San Bernardino County on Thursday, October 16, 2014 and booked into the West Valley Detention Center.

The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information regarding this incident is urged to contact Detectives Jerry Davenport or Rob Trostle at (909) 387-3589. Callers wishing to remain anonymous are urged to call the We-tip Hotline at 1-800-78-CRIME (27463) or you may leave information on the We-Tip website at www.wetip.com.